Kissed By The Gods

Edited to add that this book was picked up for traditional publishing and will release traditionally April 21, 2026 and will have an audiobook as well!

When I say Kissed By The Gods has absolutely devoured my brain, I am not exaggerating. From the very first line, this book locked me in and refused to let go. There is not a single lull, a single sagging chapter, or a moment where I was not fully immersed in the world Caty Rogan builds. It is lush, magical, and humming with the kind of political tension that makes you want to cancel your plans just to keep reading.

The worldbuilding is stunning: gods with secrets, societies built on injustices, power structures ready to crack, and a warrior order tasked with standing between humanity and monstrous threats. At the heart of it all is a girl from a quiet farming life who refuses to accept the world she was handed. Watching her step into something bigger, something world changing, felt like witnessing a legend in the making.

And the characters… oh, the characters. A cast you will love fiercely, and a few you will hate with your entire soul. The bonds in this book are rich and varied, from deep friendships, to complicated loyalties, to romances that had my heart doing somersaults. There is a main couple who absolutely owns the page, a secondary couple whose chemistry practically glows, and more than one unattached character I am already rooting for in future installments.

I also have to shout out the animal companions, which feels like too tame a phrase for the war horse beasts in this world. They are majestic, intimidating, loyal, and somehow still deeply endearing. I would like one delivered to my door, please and thank you.

This is very much fantasy forward with romance woven beautifully throughout, and the balance is perfection. I never felt like the worldbuilding overshadowed the emotional beats, or that the relationships took away from the stakes. Everything enhances everything.

This is book one of a series, with a prequel already out (also a 5 star read for me), and book two coming in 2026. I immediately ordered signed copies of both the prequel and Kissed By The Gods from the author’s website, goodies included, because I am fully and unapologetically a Caty Rogan stan now. Her writing has that rare spark that makes you want to follow every project she touches.

If you love fantasy that feels vast and immersive, politics woven with heart, monster fighting stakes, layered characters, and romances that make you swoon while the world burns around them, this belongs on your shelf. I already know this series is going to own me for years.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️

Blurb:

Leina has spent a lifetime submitting. Kneeling. Enduring.

Then soldiers come for her brother, and divine fury surges through her veins. She expects execution for the bodies she left in her wake. Her people have met bloody ends for far, far less.

Instead, Ryot, a godsworn warrior born to privilege and raised in order, drags her into a world that was never meant for her. One of divine armies and death demons, winged war horses and monsters, sacred power and royal secrets.

A kiss from a goddess changes everything.

No longer a criminal, Leina is a prize. The kingdom’s most powerful men want what the goddess touched. Leina wants only one thing, though: freedom for her people. And she’ll trade herself for the strength to destroy the kingdom that broke them.

Conscripted into a war she never asked for, fighting for gods she doesn’t believe in, Leina must decide how far she’s willing to go and what she’s willing to lose. Because her power is more than a threat to the kingdom’s buried secrets.

It’s a death sentence.